Name a pet you have owned and how you came to name him/her

This can be any old pet name story, it doesn't have to be especially clever.

In high school I got a kitten & the first thing she did when let loose in my bedroom was go over & eat all the flowers off my African violet, (non-toxic to cats). She later demolished the plant in a digging frenzy! For some reason the name Violet suited her & I called her Violent or Vile when she was being a brat!

The current cat, a stray was already named Sam as told us by the neighbor of the family who left him behind.

I took in a stray I found at a restaurant once, IHOP (International House of Pancakes). The day I got her I had a Reuben Sandwich, so she was named Reuben.

We inherited another cat whose name was Puddin but 2 hours after she came to live with us we renamed her to Stupid. She was always standing right behind our feet whenever we walked around the apartment. Then we lived on a 3rd floor tennement house, there were no screens so when we opened the windows for fresh air she would go out on the wide gutter ledge and roll around on her back - 3 stories up. Oh and when we went to bed, we would shut off the lights and then all of a sudden hear, Meow...Meow...Meow..., Stupid's call saying "Where are you? I'm lost". She gave us many hours of amusement and was very friendly.

Then there was my first cat growing up at home, she was named Jennifer, I always loved that name and wanted it as my own as I hated mine. Jenny as she was come to be called was also very friendly as was all my cats and she was part Siamese, Black with white paws.

That's just a few of my pets, then there was the goldfish, parakeet and hermit crabs I've had.

My family has in total 7 cats, I won't go into the details on each! But our latest one, Francesca, I found wandering around my husband's (then boyfriend's) old apartment complex, meowing pitifully. She was just skin and bones. I took her home, gave her a good meal, and the rest is history. She's one of the most beautiful cats I have ever seen now. Rose grey, with bright green eyes. Unfortunately she's become very timid and is acting aggressively out of fear leftover from her past, I think. I need Jackson Galaxy to come to my parents' house! lol.

One year for my birthday my Husband gave me a kitten that was the sweetest cream and orange color. My birthday being in October, we decided to name him Toby. He was a happy little kitty for the first couple of months, and then one day I came home to find him on the couch passed away. I was so so so upset. I cried and stayed in bed for a couple of days and then pulled out of it and started to go on with the day.

About a week after Toby passed away I found the biggest surprise ever in my kitchen. I came out of my bedroom to go into the kitchen for coffee and I find a cream striped kitten in my kitchen chowing down on catfood while my other cats sat there sniffing the air lol. He came right to me and started to pet my legs with his body.

My husband and I kept him, and named him Tomoko (friendly one) Who grew to be a huge and sweet cat who unfortunately was in a fight with a yard animal and has passed away as well.

This can be any old pet name story, it doesn't have to be especially clever.

In high school I got a kitten & the first thing she did when let loose in my bedroom was go over & eat all the flowers off my African violet, (non-toxic
...

This can be any old pet name story, it doesn't have to be especially clever.

In high school I got a kitten & the first thing she did when let loose in my bedroom was go over & eat all the flowers off my African violet, (non-toxic to cats). She later demolished the plant in a digging frenzy! For some reason the name Violet suited her & I called her Violent or Vile when she was being a brat!

I've got a cat named Meisha. I was looking up Russian names and saw that one and it seemed perfect for her.

She has separation anxiety so, when we first got her, she had to come to work with us every day or she'd howl from sun up to sun down. We did roadside assistance and worked in our truck all day -- so it was a kind of rip on Driving Miss Daisy.

All of our dogs have been vehicle themed. My husband named our girl Cooper because I was obsessed with MINI Coopers at the time. Then when she needed a playmate, we named him Harley. The stray we looked after for a while was dubbed Diesel while he was here.

The only pet name we have with a real story is our cat, Kit Kat. When we first got our cat, she was only supposed to be here for a week or two to help us with a mouse problem. She was called Demon when we got her, but I always just referred to her as the cat in an effort to not bond. Of course that didn't work, and the cat's original owner had already expressed that she'd be cool with it if we decided to keep her. So the cat stayed. I'd already been calling her variants of Cat, Kitty, Kitty Cat, etc. I also had a friend in high school who's family had several cats named after different candies, so my mind immediately went to Kit Kat once we decided this was her permanent home.

Chico is our beloved pittie boy. He was named after my husbands dads friend who lost his life to an overdose. I hate his name (and the fact that he was named for a drug addict) since I wanted to name him Charlie after the dog in Joe Dirt.

We got a male lab puppy when I was in middle school. He was big, doofy, slept a lot, and ate a lot. We couldn't come up with a name until The Beverly Hillbillies came on the tv and I saw my puppy was just like Jethro..so I named him Jethro.

Reply

04/18/2013

Mr. John

Quote:

Originally posted by
Wicked Wahine

This can be any old pet name story, it doesn't have to be especially clever.

In high school I got a kitten & the first thing she did when let loose in my bedroom was go over & eat all the flowers off my African violet, (non-toxic
...

This can be any old pet name story, it doesn't have to be especially clever.

In high school I got a kitten & the first thing she did when let loose in my bedroom was go over & eat all the flowers off my African violet, (non-toxic to cats). She later demolished the plant in a digging frenzy! For some reason the name Violet suited her & I called her Violent or Vile when she was being a brat!

My Arabian horse, Magdalena. Quite honestly, that was her pedgree name. I called her Maggie for short.

we adopted a dog that the previous owner named Billy Bob. Which was possibly the worst name every for this sweet dog. We wracked our brains for other names starting with "b" in the hopes that it wouldn't confuse him too much, and ended up with Benny

we had to put him to sleep recently but it's already nice to think of the good memories with him!

My youngest cat's name is O. My gramma's idiot (outdoor) dog seemed to be barking at the door one Sunday and when we opened it, there was a tiny kitten huddled in front of the door. I was kind of like, "Oh, it's a kitten!" And I decided to name him the utterance of surprise I made when I found him because I'm weird like that and it seemed like a good idea.

My husband said that we couldn't have more than two cats, but my papa said that if we didn't take him, he'd shoot him. Naturally, I started crying and got to keep the kitty :3

My youngest cat's name is O. My gramma's idiot (outdoor) dog seemed to be barking at the door one Sunday and when we opened it, there was a tiny kitten huddled in front of the door. I was kind of like, "Oh, it's a kitten!" And I
...

My youngest cat's name is O. My gramma's idiot (outdoor) dog seemed to be barking at the door one Sunday and when we opened it, there was a tiny kitten huddled in front of the door. I was kind of like, "Oh, it's a kitten!" And I decided to name him the utterance of surprise I made when I found him because I'm weird like that and it seemed like a good idea.

My husband said that we couldn't have more than two cats, but my papa said that if we didn't take him, he'd shoot him. Naturally, I started crying and got to keep the kitty :3

I hope your papa said that just so your husband would see that you had to take the poor thing! You know what? I'm better off not knowing, never mind! I hope you are happy with your menagerie! It's a slippery slope, but what can you do when presented with such a precious little ball of fur?

My cat James T was named after Captain Kirk. When I first got him he acted like he was such hot stuff, and was feeling out the situation with the three dogs (papillons)we had. I walked into the room to find him intimidating and baiting the dogs (who were kind of afraid of him) and I thought of Kirk toying with the Klingons. Name stuck. It's even funnier now that he's fat like Kirk in the later movies

I named one of my cats Ondine. I rescue, anyways she was a newborn left for dead with her brother, whom survived but she didn't. As he grew to be almost 6months of age so did she but she stayed newborn sized and blind. She later died. I named her Ondine because I thought it would be a strong female name, from the movie Ondine.and although she still passed on, her time with us was beautiful just like Ondine in the movie.

My first pet was a German Shepard his name was Bruno, big beautiful dog full of muscle, the name just popped in my head, ever since all my shepherds were named Bruno.

My Chihuahua now the former owner named him Senior Papi.. I am like WTF? So now, his name is simply Papi.

My daughter’s dog that we got from the dog pound was Sox which was her former name, she got mean after we fixed her. Took her back to the pound after she tried to bite my daughter, that was the last straw. She ended up being put to sleep.

Ci-Ci the replacement we got from the pound my daughter liked Ci-Ci from the Nanny. She was run-over; you cannot have the door open an inch without her running off. She had to be on the lead before it was opened, my brother forgot about that.

Now Nina the last dog and if anything happens to her there will be no other dogs.. Just Papi, her former owner named her.

I have three dogs. All three are rescues, and none of them had names that really fit, and since all of them had tough pasts, we didn't want to bring their names along to their future home with us.

We got our first, Dante, as a rescue. He was a bait dog in a fighting ring, and I managed to pick him up about half an hour before he would have been put down. He was aggressive towards men, but a sucker for the ladies; terrified of cars (it took me almost an hour just to get him in the car to come home), and was all skin, bones, and scars. Eight years later, he still has a little PTSD, and gets jittery when there are too many people around, doesn't like people play-fighting or loud, deep voices; but he is a world-class snuggle bunny, and the favorite of all of my house guests.

He's a red Australian cattle dog, and his original name was Fox, because he has a beautiful red tail with a white tip (a breed standard). We are both total nerds, and have a love for classical literature. So, because of his color, and because he went through an "inferno" before he landed in our arms, we named him Dante.

We got our second ACD a few months later. She is a beautiful blue heeler, so we came up with Gabrielle, a feminine variation of Gabriel. Again, we're nerds, and I loved the dichotomy of heaven and hell. Ironically, we're both atheists.

Our third boy is Titus. He's a dopey, but beautiful, ACD, like the others, but he has Gabrielle's coloration. B and I love the show Titus, and Christopher Titus is one of our favorite comedians, and his goofy nature kind of gave us the name Titus. My husband and I also met during a production of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, so having a name linked to Shakespeare totally clinched picking the name Titus. For fans of the show out there, we have a tendency to call him Dave when he does something particularly silly.

I have three dogs. All three are rescues, and none of them had names that really fit, and since all of them had tough pasts, we didn't want to bring their names along to their future home with us.

We got our first, Dante, as a rescue. He
...

I have three dogs. All three are rescues, and none of them had names that really fit, and since all of them had tough pasts, we didn't want to bring their names along to their future home with us.

We got our first, Dante, as a rescue. He was a bait dog in a fighting ring, and I managed to pick him up about half an hour before he would have been put down. He was aggressive towards men, but a sucker for the ladies; terrified of cars (it took me almost an hour just to get him in the car to come home), and was all skin, bones, and scars. Eight years later, he still has a little PTSD, and gets jittery when there are too many people around, doesn't like people play-fighting or loud, deep voices; but he is a world-class snuggle bunny, and the favorite of all of my house guests.

He's a red Australian cattle dog, and his original name was Fox, because he has a beautiful red tail with a white tip (a breed standard). We are both total nerds, and have a love for classical literature. So, because of his color, and because he went through an "inferno" before he landed in our arms, we named him Dante.

We got our second ACD a few months later. She is a beautiful blue heeler, so we came up with Gabrielle, a feminine variation of Gabriel. Again, we're nerds, and I loved the dichotomy of heaven and hell. Ironically, we're both atheists.

Our third boy is Titus. He's a dopey, but beautiful, ACD, like the others, but he has Gabrielle's coloration. B and I love the show Titus, and Christopher Titus is one of our favorite comedians, and his goofy nature kind of gave us the name Titus. My husband and I also met during a production of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, so having a name linked to Shakespeare totally clinched picking the name Titus. For fans of the show out there, we have a tendency to call him Dave when he does something particularly silly.

So, Dante, Gabrielle, and Titus. My babies.

What wonderful people you are for rescuing those dogs! Love your names & the reasons for them. Growing up, we always had rescue dogs & some would come with a hatred/fear of a certain sex. It's amazing how, even after the most extreme abuse, with some love & understanding, these animals can trust again; I don't know if many people could do the same! Thanks for sharing their stories!

I got an all black kitty when I saw 5 and named him Minuit (midnight in french). I called him Min for short.

I think that's such a cute name; I love the pronunciation in French, it sounds adorable for a cat name. My one brother has a black dog named Midnight. My other brother has an all black cat named VooDoo.

I fell into the ownership of a horse a few years back, which is an incredibly complex story...but I was so excited to have him! With his new life, he needed a new name for the show ring (and at home), so we all fondly called him "Dippy" short for Serendipity, which means a happy accident because that is exactly what owning him has been

Jude. He's a siamese mix, and I got him on halloween in my senior year of high school. He was the last of a litter that my friend's cat had, but my mom said we couldn't get another cat. So I got up at 4am, drove to my friend's house before school, got Jude and dropped him off with my bff's boyfriend who watched him for the day. Then after school I snuck him into the house in my backpack. The first thing mom asked me was "DO YOU HAVE A KITTEN IN YOUR BACKPACK?" I tried to deny it, but as soon as I tried to leave him in my room alone he started crying. So I showed him to mom ("Look at how cute he is mom! Look at his blue eyes!"). A couple of mornings later I woke up to hear her singing "Hey Jude" to him and I knew we were keeping him. He's the best cat I've ever had, and now he lives with me and my gf.